I've been watching Naruto forever and always mean to write something, but I never get around to it. So now I'm writing something. Naruto's in the hospital recovering after some minor battle and Sakura's checking in on him.
It felt weird, Sakura decided, to see Naruto lying so calmly in his hospital bed. In her mind he was always moving, grinning, overflowing with his endless need to make everyone around him feel warm and welcome.
"Sakurachan." He must have heard her footsteps because he turned his head away from the window and smiled.
"Hi Naruto, I was just coming to check up on you. How are you feeling?"
"I'm fine. Can you tell Granny Tsunade to let me out of here already?" He grinned at Sakura. Sakura realized he was probably still a long way from a complete recovery if he hadn't just let himself out by now. Even the nine-tails has his limits. She thought. She shuddered slightly as she recalled the sight of Kakashi carrying the limp blond on his back, the rain coming down hard. Sakura remembered the feeling of puddles splashing at her ankles as she ran toward them. Why hadn't she gone on the mission? She should have been there. Naruto would have gotten medical attention sooner... Should have been there. She had let him down... Again.
"Ahh... Sakura?" Naruto asked.
"Huh?" Sakura started but she quickly gave Naruto a warm smile. "No, you need to finish resting." You could have died.
Naruto crossed his arms in front of his chest and pouted. "Ramen is much better than this terrible hospital food."
"Oh! You want Ramen? I could get you some!" Sakura volunteered.
Naruto narrowed his eyes at her. "What's the catch?"
"What? There's no catch."
"Then why are you being so nice?"
"Why can't I just be nice?" She yelled, for a moment she almost struck him but he was a patient in the hospital and it was usually considered bad form to strike hospital patients. Even they were dobes... Who were also old friends.
"Okay, okay! You can be nice!" Naruto held up his hands in surrender. One of his arms was still swathed in bandages. Sakura could see the bandages that wrapped his rib cage peeking out from under his hospital garb.
"I'll be right back." She said, pulling herself away.
"Yo." Kakashi was standing in the hallway, and as Sakura stepped out of Naruto's room, he fell into step beside her. "How is he?"
"Fine, I think. Kakashi sensei..." Sakura paused. Looked down at the ground. "What happened? How did he get so hurt."
Kakashi sighed. "He is reckless. He thought I was in danger. He was trying to protect me."
Sakura looked down at her feet as she continued to walk. "He is always doing that, isn't he? Protecting us." Kakashi said nothing. "And I... I can never protect him." She squeezed her hands into tight fists. "It's always him, protecting me."
Kakashi said nothing as they walked out of the hospital, he just stared up into the blue sky.
"I wonder... I wonder if it had been Naruto that night. The night Sasuke left. If Naruto had been there, if he might have been able to convince Sasuke to stay. He is always so good, at things like that. He can always make people change their minds. He can do it without fighting them. So I wonder if, I wonder if he could have stopped Sasuke."
"Sasuke believed he had to follow that path." Kakashi said, after a long pause. "No one could have stopped him."
"Do you think Naruto can now?"
Kakashi said nothing.
He thought of his two students. The dark, brooding Uchiha. The bright, clumsy Naruto.
"I don't know if anyone can." They had reached Ichira Ramen. "But... If there's anyone who can. It's Naruto."
A/N: Eh, don't know why I bothered to write this. Guess I just needed to write something tonight.